The day before the OD I made sure I have my outfit well pressed, all my documents and photos in one folder, polished shoes, black pens and a notebook in my bag. I remember the night before, instead of going to sleep earlier, I could barely fall to sleep, no matter how well-prepared I was, I still had that nerve-wrecking feeling which is totally normal, because this is something that I’ve been dreaming of.
Top tips before an OD: go to sleep early! Period.
Some cabin crew even said being on time is being late, you have to be at least showed up 15 minutes before the scheduled time.
To be early is to be on-time
To be on-time is to be late
And being late is unacceptable
I got up that day at 5:30 AM, the hotel is located one hour drive from home. The OD starts at 9:00 AM. I wanted to be there by 8:00 AM so I have time to park my car, freshen up, mingle and get to know some people there to calm my nerves. I finished taking a shower, fixing my makeup and hair bun in 1 hour. No matter how nervous you are, try to have a breakfast to start your day as you wouldn’t know how long you’re going to spend at the venue. I arrived at the venue 7:40 AM, parked my car and sat around 15 minutes in my car to relax a bit and then made my way to the venue. To my surprise, at 8:00 AM the venue was already packed with beautiful people wearing their most impeccable make up and tailored suit. I smiled and greeted literally everyone and stood next to a sofa, started to chat with a lovely Korean girl who traveled all the way to Jakarta to attend this OD.
When the time showed 9:00 AM, the recruiter came and walked into the conference room, we all started to line up in front of the room, without knowing what would happen next. Luckily me and some girls I made friend with earlier gathered close to the entrance of the conference room. When the recruiter came out, she handed us a paper consists of information about Emirates salary & benefits, allowances, accommodation, annual leave, and health insurance and a form to fill in our applicant reference number, personal contact details, and whether we had attended a FI with Emirates or not before.
Afterwards, we entered the conference room where there were only 100 chairs set up, while I supposed there were more than 200 people who attended that day. So many people ended up standing in the room. I am lucky to be seated at the second front row, I sat up straight and smiled all the time. The recruiter was by herself, she introduced her name and where she came from, also explained that she was once a cabin crew before she finally worked as a recruiter for total 8 years of working experience with Emirates. How awesome is that!
She was very surprised to see that MANY people turned up at an AD (it was supposedly to be an AD, written on the website “by invitation only”). So she decided to turned the AD into a CV drop-off event (OD). She didn’t play the video to introduce Emirates airline like in many OD is because of the number of people who turned up and (again) she was by herself. She went straight to the business and explained that we should make a line and have our CV, a photo, and the filled-in form ready. NO cover letter needed, NO invitation needed. We were also asked to line up about 2 meters before her desk because she would ask a question or 2 while we hand her our CV. People who will be shortlisted and invited for the AD will be called around 5:00 PM, she pointed out that she would NOT leave any message or voice mail, only a 1 minute phone call or maybe less, informing that we are shortlisted and our reference number to be used during the AD.
I spent almost the whole morning standing up in my pointy pumps. I didn’t really want to become the very first people who handed in the CV, but I also didn’t want to stay as long until the very last ones. So I was a bit in between, after 2 hours she asked for a 5 minute break and then she came back to continue. So I handed in my documents around 11:40 AM with half of the candidates left in the room. When I walked to her desk I smiled and greeted her “Hello, how are you?”. She answered back and quickly asked my documents and asked me to fill in a form where I should list down my name and phone number. While she flicked through my papers, she asked “what do I do for work?”. I answered briefly and straight to the point, “I worked in a food & beverage business for over 6 years as a purchasing manager and my job description includes, bla, bla, bla” And that’s it. I thanked her for her time and wished her a very good day.
Don’t treat the recruiter as someone who would only take your resume. BIG NO NO! Be kind and polite, smile to her, and sincerely thank her for her time. It will be very much appreciated!
I walked out of the room feeling confused, I was stuttering because I was really nervous. I kept on thinking I should’ve said better and decided to sit in a sofa, talking with some people who still waited for their friends. I texted my friend who apparently about to head back home, so we met up at the lobby and I wished her good luck and headed home.
Waiting for the call that afternoon was very intense. My phone signal at my house isn’t that great, I should put my phone in a certain place and I made sure I turned up the volume loud enough so I wouldn’t miss a single message (read: call). I was very sleepy so I decided to take a nap.
5:00 PM and still nothing, I was getting devastated.
When time turned 6:oo PM, I was watching my phone and praying that a call would come up. And 2 minutes later, there it was an unknown number +6221 (must be the hotel’s number) showed up and I picked up. The recruiter called me and advised me I should come up tomorrow at 8:00 AM with #55 as my reference number. “See you tomorrow”, she ended up the phone call in 18 seconds.
I was so excited that I jumped around and shouted to my mom in another room, also texted my friend who still hasn’t got the call.
She finally got the invitation for the AD by email via the recruiter’s phone at 7:00 PM!! I’m really happy for her and off we went to bed.
Red Revival 